It never occurred to them that the hooligans in the video clip, who stomped on the Chinese couple's car before beating them could be from the same gang as the Bersih protestors who destroyed the police car and beat up the policeman driver.

I remember well when Pakatan supporters defended the Bersih hooligans.

Now we are talking about limiting the "freedom" that we wanted so much by repealing the ISA and other such "draconian laws" to avoid such as the Low Yat Incident from happening again.

We are even calling for the social media, much blamed for the Low Yat Incident, to be regulated.

But how are we going to do that?

Malaysians are now so used to their social media freedom.

Anyway, would curbing our freedom makes members of our society less racist?

Honestly, I don't think so.

By the way, were we going back to the 1980s of Mahathirism where racial nonsense was not tolerated such as what took place during that Operation Lalang?

If it is so, maybe it's for the better.

Well, so much for all those talks about the virtues of being moderates.

Everything considered, we are indeed not matured enough as a society.

Some of us can't even understand the very basic principles of rule of law.

Let's not fool ourselves, okay.

Maybe we should give ourselves until 2020 before we can say we are a finally matured society.

I think it could take much longer to become a matured society, more like by 2050, 2080 or even 2120.

Then again, levels of maturity do not move in straight lines but constantly vary over the years and quite often is related to levels of economic prosperity or hardship and is evident from history anywhere around the world.

Malaysia was quite a prosperous country during the 1980s and especially when the economy was roaring during first half of the 1990s, with economic growth and employment opportunities galore, until the Asian Financial Crisis hit in 1997 and that was during Mahathir's time as Prime Minister.

Compare that with the state of our economy and employment opportunities today and you begin to understand how especially the protest by 200 outside Low Yat Plaza introduced a racial dimension what was initially just an incidence of shoplifting and citizen's arrest.

I was in Brickfields late at night in 1987 and I was rather surprised by the rather cold reception of a Chinese shopkeeper when went to her shop to buy a packet of cigarettes. After all, many people still mistake me for a Malay.

There was no Internet back then but real or false news spread like wildfire by word of mouth and the next day I learned that Najib who was then acting UMNO Youth Chief had alleged said something about "bathing his keris in Chinese blood", at a rally at the TPCA Stadium near Kampung Baru. Opps Lalang followed shortly after.

Whether or not Najib did say such words, I do not know as I was not there.

Anyway, going back further, my cousin had her own horror experience in May 1969 when the film being screened at cinema she and her friend were at was stopped and viewers told to go home and how there was a mob outside which was slashing and killing people fleeing from the cinema.

Fortunately for her, she looks more Eurasian and te mob left her and her German friend alone as they ran towards their car.

I wonder how many of today's liberals had direct experience of the bloody events of 13th May 1969 and its aftermath or perhaps were even born when it happened.

They seem to be relatively quiet now after the Low Yat Plaza incident.

The bottom line is that there are strong resentments on both sides which have been building up below the surface over the years and can now easily burst out over a minor provocation.

Well, this is what the "UBAH!" much celebrated by the opposition and their youthful supporters has brought us to, barely two years after the May 2013 general elections.

The thing about UBAH (change) is that it can either be an UBAH for the better or an UBAH for the worse, and my gut feeling following the May 2013 general elections was that it would be an UBAH for the worse in which inter-ethnic tensions would worsen rather than improve and looking around me, it most unfortunately looks like I that gut feeling is turning out to be correct.

re: "And when the PM at that time, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad used the ISA during Operation Lalang, he was branded as a dictator. That crackdown in 1987 was carried out as racial tension had reached a very dangerous level due to a quarrel between Chinese and Malay political leaders over the administration of Chinese schools."

Wasn't it also during that time that the PAS' Hadi Awang made his infamous proclamation against Dr. Mahathir and everything UMNO branding them as "KAFIR"?

I know that the police and PM had to cool the situation down. One way is to be clear that the original incident was not race related. Another might be to say any people attending illegal gatherings will be arrested immediately. But under this, Annie is 100% right. If anyone wishes to live in a society governed by rules and rights and not an arbitrary mess where you worry about what could happen. Annie is also right that the Bersih thugs should be pursued by the police too. These attackers at the mall and the idiot with the piece of wood needs to be arrested and prosecuted. There is a case to answer. No one needs these type of people running free. The same applies to people provoking this behavior. If the shop folk sold fake goods they should also face justice in the courts.

The sellers in Lowyat has been cheating customers for years.They had been selling underground and fake items. Why was there nothing done about it? That is the main issue here.Why are people talking about race? It could be about customers who are fed up with the sellers in Lowyat who had been cheating and lying to them.Not to mention that all these while the sellers have bouncers and beat up those customers who complain. Forget about police and kpdnkk watever coz they never do anything.

If the Lowyat's sellers have been cheating customers and beating customers who complains, then why on earth do you keep on going to Lowyat? Boikot lah... takkan takde kedai lain kat Malaysia yg jual barang yang sama? Nobody force you to go to Lowyat in the first place.

Yes...cheating is around every where. But not all sellers. But in the first place why buyers are not aware and still go to such places? This is because some sellers are not cheaters and that's why the business in Lowyat booms. I was there on Monday to look for a filter for my camera. Before going there, I did a checked on the internet and found the price range from RM35-RM45. Same thing, same brand selling for RM10-RM25 (exclude postage). But in lowyat they're selling similar item from RM94-RM120. Did I buy it? Definitely NO. So off I went to Sg Wang and looking for the same thing. There they are selling the same item from RM30-RM85. So I bought from the shop that sells at RM30. So dont blame the sellers...the buyers also at fault.

easy answer is to boycott for those who know. but what about others who dont know? customs dept n kpdnkk should do their work and do a thorough check on these cheaters.heard a lot of stories from friends who got cheated here n complained but no action was taken. in fact kpdnkk actually make a warning statement that they will go after raya holidays giving these sellers chance to pack underground or fake items. we got to push the authorities to act....unless they themselves are in it.

I don't understand the reason of retaliation against Low Yat cheaters.It takes some effort to get to Low Yat, you have to walk at least a block from any public transport. The parking is woefully inadequate. If the plcae is a reputable cheating den, why torture yourself by shopping there?Just nearby is Pavilion and KLCC with legit shops. The new Bumi owned mall called Nu Sentral in KL Sentral has plenty of IT shops and is super convenient to get to. Neighboring Low Yat is Imbi Plaza and BB Plaza (temporarily out of commision), In short, there are many alternatives. Why go to Low Yat?

1000% right. We will not...I repeat...we will not be matured if we dont change the current education system and the political system. School are race base and so is the political parties. We will not be matured till this two main systems change.

Those kids never played together, never shared their meals together, never helped one another, never pondered school subjects together, .. never even quarreled with one another at school, ...... how on earth are we going to get unity Malaysia?

Are Malaysian ready enough to withstand the racial insults or not to have racial insults? Are Malaysian safe without the ISA? A big NO! We are not ready. The reason we are not ready is because of our education system, our politician and our culture as well. Each of us are brought up in a different way and we are educated in the a different way too. Nowadays the children from young do not interact well with other races. It is not like in the 60s, 70s or early 80s whereby we mixed freely with all races in the schools. But now it is different....during the primary schools years, the Chinese goes to the Chinese school, the Malay to the Malay school and the Indian goes to the Tamil school. Comes to the secondary schools years, most Chinese and Indian goes to the "jenis kebangsaan" school and most Malay goes to the "kebangsaan" school. Some of them that can afford will be send to the international school. So,you see, at this young age they did not interact well with other races and comes to adult age then how are we going to change their thinking? Then we have the politician and their political parties. Each of the main races have their own political party. Do you see that happen in our two neighboring country? No. So comes to 2020s or even 2050s, we will still be discussing this racial issues unless along the way, someone did a major major change to our education system and our political system. Until then, we need the ISA to shut these racialists!

If that's the case i dont blame the Malays for beating up those racist and bloody bastard Chinese. Typical of them to provoke. Anyway if you read Mkini, MInsider and other pro DAP portals including in Fb, you'll see that THEY blame the Malays. The comments are all racist comments...Maybe the commenter for this chronology of events shoud translate the above info into Englush or even Chinese for a wider audience.

We will never be a mature society. It is due economic gap between and within races. I went to school with one of those boys in the video. Nice chap but somehow mixed with the wrong crowd in school, not interested in studies. It is sad as I know the family. It is even more sad he never outgrew those school days gang affiliation. But unfortunately our education system has failed those like him.

I am just wondering why these people are not at Sembahyang Terawih instead. It is a the holy month of Ramadan.

I'm a malay. i like to be friends with all races. But somehow I notice a lot of provocation being done by especially the chinese. I am not sure if this is intention or not. Most of them speak in chinese when I am around which is really rude coz they can speak in Bahasa or English.Then ..they asked me to eat pork coz its tasty although they know muslims are prohibited from eating pork. I see some daging babi salai stalls near malay restaurants in malls. They also like to put the pigs head or whole pig body on the table as if trying to make us muslims uncomfortable.We eat cow or goat meat but we dont put those animals head on the table!!!

Bro., my good friends are devout Buddhists. Those kind of Chinese who display roast pig or pig head either at table for makan or includ in their religious worship are Pagan worshippers - Malays call "kurafat"

Speaking in Chinese? You mean in Mandarin or Chinese dialects? Why do you think this is "really rude"? Is it mandatory that they converse in Malay or English?

"provocation" works both ways. If the Chinese feel discriminated against, if they are constantly being tagged as "pendatangs" or if they are told to "hijrah" if they don't like it here, then don't blame them for reacting.

Of course it is rude whether it is mandarin or ch dialect, when you have others in the group who dont understand the ongoing side conversation. This is called common courtesy. If you cant comprehend this concept, its the fault of your upbringing.

It's actually their babi guling speciality like in Bali. Let them be, no need to be so upset about it. But on ther hand, to ask you to eat pork isn't so nice of them. That's bloody rude ..it's like asking a Hindu to eat beef.

2 weeks ago there was a Malaysian Chinese Tan Sri who has factories in the North East China, and made his fortune there, brought about 6000 of his China employees to Malaysia for their company holidays.

It was very widely reported in the Chinese local newspapers, but not sure if NST reported it so can't say if Annie is aware of it.

They travelled from north to South of the peninsula, instilled interest and confidence in the Chinese tourists so as to help tourism of Malaysia.

So not all Chinese Malaysians are evil, at least there's none bumiputra businessmen who has done anything in that scale to help the country's tourism.

Having said that, there seems no denial that this country is currently blessed with the most lovable, capable, and bravest prime minister of all time, that so many people including bloggers who, unlike others, are upholding the rules of law thus demanding, quite rightly, for convincing evidence before making any accusations against anyone, be it a handphone thief or public money thief.

The IGP said, all OKTs would naturally claim innocence. This does not go well with the upright bloggers of this country.

Perhaps we should have one of these upright bloggers to be our IGP. Then, all who want to report a crime must not only bring IC, but must also bring enough convincing evidence.